IBM Information On Demand: Unlocking the business value of information for competitive advantage

Information On Demand

Gaining a competitive edge is never

easy. Organizations today have

learned that although it helps to be

more productive and more efficient

than their competitors, that alone is

not enough. To sustain a competitive

advantage, you need to do more

than automate for efficiency — you

need to optimize your business.

What’s needed is innovation — part

inspiration, part discipline and part

another secret ingredient that you

already have in your organization:

information.

IBM Information On Demand helps

you unlock the business value of

information for competitive advantage.

How? By freeing information from silos.

By transforming it from conflicting and

overlapping data points to accurate,

integrated information you can trust.

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By delivering it in multiple, meaningful

contexts across the enterprise. And by

leveraging it to help you understand

what is happening and why it’s

happening, and plan for what should

happen next.

With Information On Demand, your

employees can recognize and

seize opportunities. Your partners

can align with your goals. And

your customers can benefit from a

customized relationship they value

as much as you do. You can optimize

processes on demand and deliver

actionable insight to every employee

for every transaction, maximizing the

potential of your information to drive

better business outcomes.

Start gaining and sustaining a

business edge based on your secret

weapon —Information On Demand.

The hidden potential

Most organizations are drowning

in data, reports, spreadsheets,

paper-based documents, e-mails

and instant messages. If all this

information is stored at all, it is

kept in manual or paper-based file

systems, locked up in different

operational systems, hidden on

employees’ disk drives or scattered

across multiple repositories.

In the absence of a unified, trusted

view of customer, product and

account information, workers

continually search for and re-create

the same information. Eventually

multiple views of critical business

information emerge — along with

inaccuracies and errors. Costs go

up and effectiveness goes down,

Information On Demand

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and it becomes increasingly difficult

to respond to business pressures

such as:

• Improvingcustomerandproduct

profitability

• Increasingagilityand

competitiveness

• Optimizingbusinessprocesses

• Complyingwithregulations

• Managingbusinessrisk

People throughout the organization

ask questions such as: Can I trust

the information I find? Am I receiv-

ing the information in context? Is

it complete? Is it accurate? Can

every employee get it on demand to

support every transaction? Am

I getting insights that help me

understand what happened and why,

and plan for what will happen next?

And the answer is often “No.”

In a world that relies increasingly on

collaboration and informed judgment,

forward-thinking executives across

multiple industries are beginning

to realize that many organizations are

missing the value that comes from

leveraging accurate, trusted information

as a strategic business asset.

For example, imagine a call center

where representatives have

access to a complete, up-to-the-

minute view of customers — not just

their names and addresses, but their

policy history, balances and transac-

tions, an analysis of prior issues and

recent marketing contacts, together

with recent e-mails requesting loan

information and images of past state-

ments from a policy system.

With this set of complete information

readily available, the care

representative can provide superior

service to increase customer

satisfaction and identify up-sell and

cross-sell opportunities to increase

revenue per customer.

Information On Demand across

the globe

The need for business insight on demand,

based on a unified view of accurate, trusted

information about customers, products and

accounts, touches organizations of virtually

all sizes across all industries. Organizations

around the globe are meeting that need with

Information On Demand. For example:

•German financial services organization

WestLB is increasing the accuracy of watch

list checks and streamlining fraud analysis

with Information On Demand. Name-

matching process acceleration:

reduced from 12 hours to 15 minutes.

•A large American retailer is extracting sales

data to enable real-time adjustments in

inventory to maximize revenue potential

and avoid “out-of-stock” conditions.

Point-of-sale transactions leveraged:

one million per hour.

•Honeywell is consolidating customer data

across its four strategic business groups

and creating a mechanism for sharing

customer information. Value of revenue

growth opportunities uncovered:

millions of dollars.

•Whirlpool consolidated its data centers and

introduced real-time workload management.

Benefits: faster, easier server provision-

ing, increased operational efficiency,

reduced space and reduced energy use.

•MGM Mirage implemented a customer-

rewards program that reconciles name

variations (for example, Jonathan Miller,

Jon Miller, J. Miller) and updates accounts

as members visit theaters, restaurants,

bars and casinos along the Las Vegas strip.

Results: improved customer service,

with loyalty club points updated in near-

real time across 23 resorts.

Information On Demand

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Now imagine that information about

this customer’s history is automatically

combined with that of other

customers, and presented to market

planners, support managers and

executives in the form of trend tracking

and predictive analysis to assist in

short- and long-term planning.

Information On Demand can help you:

• Gainnewinsightsfromthe

informationyoualreadyhave

• Transformcoreprocessesby

facilitatingafreeflowofinformation

acrossyourenterprise

• Understandandserveclientsbetter

bydiscoveringnew,innovativeways

toapproachthemarket

• Increaseproductivitythrough

improveddecisionmaking

• Streamlinecompliance

measuresbymoreeffectively

managinginformationoverthe

courseofitslifetime

• Respondquicklytochangingmarket

conditionsbasedonaccurate,trusted

informationaboutclientsandproducts

• Implementmultichannelmarketing,

financialriskinsight,workforce

optimization,dynamicsupplychain

management,customerandproduct

profitability,andothercriticalbusiness

initiativesrequiringtimelyaccessto

informationandactionableinsights

A better way

The journey to Information On

Demand began twenty years ago,

with the automation of financial

systems, inventory systems, customer

relationship management, human

resources, and other key systems

throughout the organization. With

automation came efficiencies. And

with more and more automation came

more and more information.

Today, there is no shortage of

information. It’s everywhere

throughout the organization — in

customer databases and file systems,

in applications such as customer

relationship management (CRM) and

enterprise resource planning (ERP),

in e-mail messages and documents,

in digital images. But an automated

organization with lots of information

is not an optimized organization.

Managing information within isolated

silos restricts business innovation

and increases IT costs. Instead,

information that is loosely coupled

to core applications and business

processes across and beyond the

organization can more easily be

managed as a strategic asset to drive

competitive advantage.

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Information On Demand

The business insights that enable

a competitive edge require a clear

view of accurate, trusted information,

wherever it resides — not only in

application databases, but also in

e-mails, documents, reports, images

and endless new sources. Until

recently, change has been daunting.

Now, service oriented architecture

(SOA) and open standards are

paving the way for information to

ThetruebusinessvalueofInformationOnDemandemergeswhenitisappliedtomeetthespecificneedsofindustries

BAnkIng• Customer care and insight• Risk insight• Multichannel marketing

AuTOmOTIve• Common quality framework• Marketing, sales and

service

ReTAIl• Single view of customer• Multichannel marketing• Loss prevention

InsuRAnce• No-touch claims processing• Customer care and insight

gOveRnmenT• Threat and security• Single view of citizen• Compliance

uTIlITIes• Proactive regulatory

management• Management of aging

workforce and assets

HeAlTH cARe• Health analytics• Threat and fraud intelligence• Customer/patient care

TelcO

• Customer insight• Data security• Workforce automation

become available as a service, in

an open and easily accessible way

that can transform your business.

An open architecture that embraces

diverse technologies, SOA constitutes

a powerful framework for flexibility,

scalability, accuracy and consistency.

Information On Demand is a critical

element of an SOA strategy. It helps

unlock information from individual

applications or departmental

silos so that it flows freely across

your organization in a secure and

timely manner. Information On

Demand helps you gain control

over the ever-expanding demands

for fast, accurate and relevant

information and provide valuable

insights wherever they are needed

throughout the organization.

Information On Demand

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Drill down to the truth

One of the first casualties of

information overload is data quality.

As more documents are produced,

it becomes increasingly difficult

to determine which version — and

which data — is correct. The

consequences are felt across

virtually every area of the company:

Answers to simple questions can’t

be trusted. Customer relationship

management efforts are undermined,

and new product launches

indefinitely delayed. When it comes

to compliance measures, inaccurate

information can expose a company

to significant regulatory-compliance

challenges. Also crucial today is

the ability to know the individuals

with whom you are dealing. This is

a critical step to help companies

protect themselves from risks such

as fraud or money laundering.

Companies across multiple

industries are already beginning to

derive value from leveraging trusted

information. For example, in banking,

Wachovia has integrated its view

of customer information, leading to

major cost reductions. In the public

sector, U.S. Customs Services has

improved security through increased

accuracy in name matching. In

health care, Cleveland Clinic is

identifying research subjects in

minutes rather than months. In

retail, Canadian Tire has reduced

integration costs that represented as

much as 10–40 percent of project

budgets down to only 3–6 percent.

Now, IBM is leading the evolution

of Information On Demand to a new

level, so organizations can unlock

the business value of information for

competitive advantage. At this new

level, you can not only manage your

data and content but also create and

deliver accurate, trusted information

from diverse silos, and gain valuable

insights to optimize your business.

According to an industry survey, 47 percent of users

don’t have confidence in their information.1

Information On Demand in action

The challenge

Leveraging information more effectively can

have a big impact on organizations seeking

to improve the efficiency of marketing to

customers. In financial services, for example,

most banks do periodic customer analysis and

segmentation, enabling product and market

managers to create quarterly, single-channel

marketing campaigns that target groups of

customers based on the overall customer-

segment history. However, these campaigns

are often ineffective because they are based on

historic information that can be outdated by the

time the offer reaches the customer.

The solution

Using Information On Demand, organizations

can now deliver real-time, individualized offers

at the point of contact. Based on the current

transaction, existing marketing promotions,

immediate analysis of and insight into the latest

sales trends, and the customer’s specific history,

each offer will be relevant to the customer at that

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Information On Demand

lower costs through an optimized

infrastructure

Given that information costs and

IT complexity are directly related to

flexibility, optimizing your information

infrastructure merits consideration.

Although there is no single, mandated

approach to information management,

it is clear that information architecture

is gaining in importance and that

the infrastructure that supports your

Information On Demand initiatives

must be flexible enough to meet

varying demands. IBM provides

answers based on an integrated

software platform with the industry’s

most complete end-to-end

capabilities, including:

• Enterprisedataandcontent

management,tocaptureand

manageinformationoveritslifecycle

• Informationintegration,warehousing

andmasterdatamanagement

toestablishaccurate,trusted

informationforasingleversionofthe

truth,managedovertime

• Businessintelligenceand

performancemanagementtobetter

understandandoptimizebusiness

performance

IBM’s new business intelligence

(BI) and performance management

capabilities take organizations

another step closer to business

optimization, supporting the good

decisions that are the basis of great

business performance. Reporting

and analysis let you see data, gain

context, understand trends and spot

anomalies. Measuring and monitoring

performance with scorecards and

dashboards track your key metrics.

And planning, budgets and forecasts

help you set and share a reliable view

of the future.

Information On Demand helps you

move from a basic level of leveraging

information — with a focus on data and

reporting — to higher levels of value,

where you leverage trusted information

in a business context as a strategic

asset, where you use information

to enable innovation and where

information helps you differentiate your

business, for competitive value and

optimized performance.

point in time, and thus more effective in driving

results. Banks and retailers can deliver this

timely and relevant information to everyone who

needs it — the teller or store clerk, the branch

or store manager, the call center agent or even

the customer — to ensure consistent, common

offers across all channels. Whether the customer

walks into a branch or store, banks or shops

online or calls customer service, the offer and

the result should be the same.

Accelerating your success

IBM industry frameworks and solutions help

organizations across multiple industries — such

as banking, retail, telecommunications and the

public sector — to accelerate their business

initiatives with Information On Demand.

Expertise reflecting experience in thousands of

customer engagements, combined with critical

technology and prebuilt accelerators specific

to the industry, can lead to a rapid “return on

information” and achievement of business

objectives.

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Information On Demand

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The evolution of Information On

Demand: IBm leads the way with

continuing innovation

In introducing the Information On Demand

initiative, IBM focused on providing

organizations with the underlying infrastructure

to manage their data and content, and extended

that with the ability to establish and deliver

trusted information across the organization.

IBM now takes Information On Demand to

the next level by enabling organizations to

maximize the value of their information by

delivering actionable insight to every person

across the organization as part of every

operation or transaction — in real time.

Take an integrated approach to

information management

Information On Demand has the

potential to revolutionize the way you

do business. In IBM’s experience with

thousands of organizations, it is clear

that technology alone cannot solve

your toughest challenges — it takes an

information agenda, with a strategy

to guide decisions, an information

infrastructure to establish a common

information framework, a road map for

implementing discrete projects, and

governance to manage and protect

enterprise information.

The IBM Information On Demand

portfolio delivers an integrated

approach to leveraging trusted

information assets, involving skills,

methodology, information technology

and industry knowledge developed

through thousands of client

engagements.

The IBM Information On Demand

portfolio includes:

• Information strategy and

implementation—Theseofferings

provideatailoredroadmapto

helpanorganizationbecomemore

innovativebyachievingitsgoals

withafocusoninformationstrategy,

architectureandgovernance,

aswellasdesign,planningand

implementation.IBMalsooffers

managedoperationsandfinancingto

meetvariedorganizationalobjectives.

• System platform—Theseofferings

providearesilientfoundationfor

theinformationinfrastructure,with

scalableplatformsandoperating

environments,storagesystemsand

storagemanagementsoftware.They

enablesystemoptimizationand

virtualizationaswellassecurityat

thenetwork,systemandapplication

levels.IBMalsooffersITservice

managementanddevelopment

servicesandtools.

IBm’s commitment to Information

On Demand in action

InvestmentIBM continues to invest significant resources

in developing Information On Demand

technology. In addition to the large

investments in software development and

services capabilities around the world,

strategic acquisitions are strengthening IBM’s

offerings that help clients use information as

a competitive and strategic business asset.

Recent acquisitions include:

• Cognos, a recognized industry leader in

business intelligence and performance

management solutions to help companies

plan, understand, manage and improve

financial and operational performance.

• Princeton Softech, a leading provider

of software for data archiving, test

data management, data privacy, data

classification and data discovery. These

offerings improve database performance by

segregating historical data from current data

and storing it securely and cost-effectively.

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Information On Demand

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• DataMirror, a provider of technology that

identifies and captures data that has been

added, updated or deleted and allows the

changed data to be delivered in real time to

processes, applications and databases.

• FileNet, a leading provider of business

process and content management solutions

that help simplify critical and everyday

decision-making processes and give

organizations a competitive advantage.

• Information infrastructure —

Meetingyourneedsformanaging

bothstructureddataand

unstructuredcontent,theseofferings

supportenterprisedataand

contentmanagement,including

advancedapplication-awaredata

archiving,content-basedbusiness

processmanagement,datalife-

cyclemanagement,searchand

discovery,andnext-generation

datawarehousing.Theysupport

informationintegrationthroughthe

useofaunifiedsoftwarefoundation,

methodologyandtools,delivering

high-qualityinformationthatcanbe

capturedassoonasitchangesand

transformedintoameaningfulformat

fortheinformationconsumer.They

provideacompletesetofservices

andtechnologiesformaster

datamanagementtocreateand

maintainconsistentandaccurate

businessdataforallstakeholders

acrossandbeyondtheenterprise.

Theofferingsalsoenablebusiness

intelligenceandperformance

management,includingreporting

andanalysis,financialplanning,

andperformancemeasurementand

monitoring.

• Industry frameworks and

assets—IBMhelpsyoucreatenew

businessvalueandinnovationwith

software,servicesandpartnerships

specifictoyourindustry.Basedon

industrybestpractices,Information

OnDemandindustryassetsleverage

IBMbusinessmodelsandexpertise

insegmentssuchasfinancial

services,retail,telecommunications,

utilities,manufacturing,government

andhealthcare.Combining

IBMtechnology,expertiseand

acceleratorswithservicesand

toolsfromIBMBusinessPartners,

theyaugmenttraditionalusesof

historicalinformation,providing

dynamicinformationduring

businessprocesses,inrealtime,

soyoucanturninsightintoaction.

Theyacceleratestrategicand

operationalbusinessinitiatives

suchascustomerfocus,

compliance,employeeproductivity,

multichannelmarketing,financial

riskmanagement,threatandfraud

intelligenceandcrimeinsight.

InnovationGround-breaking research and development

accomplishments are an IBM hallmark. Each

year IBM is awarded hundreds of patents and

releases to market an array of new capabilities

strengthening Information On Demand for IBM

clients. Recent introductions include:

• IBM DB2® Warehouse Performance

Management Suite, for easy deployment

and management of business intelligence

and data warehousing applications

• The ePedigree System, to combat

drug counterfeiting and help clients

comply with regulations

• IBM Information Server Blade, to help

enterprises manage information overload

• IBM OmniFind™ Yahoo! Edition

software, which drives advanced search

and visualization solutions

• IBM Metadata Workbench for SOA,

to aid in compliance, business intelligence

and master data integration projects

• IBM DB2 9 data server, accelerating

applications to production by simplifying

developers’ access to both XML and

relational data

Information On Demand

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Other innovations help organizations improve

service to consumers, automate human

resource tasks, reduce administrative

costs, automate security audit and compliance

management, deliver information to processes,

applications and business users through a

service oriented architecture, and accelerate

a wide range of business initiatives across

multiple industries.

The right time for Information On

Demand

The convergence of technology,

knowledge and business demand has

opened up a new era in information

management. The time is right to take

back control of your information — and

IBM is ready to help you get started.

The IBM Information On Demand

Center Of Excellence brings

technology and expertise together.

Staffed with Information On Demand

experts, including researchers,

solution architects and information

architects, the Information On Demand

Center Of Excellence combines

software with services from IBM

Global Business Services and IBM

Global Technology Services to help

you quickly assess and tackle your

individual information requirements.

Now more than ever, IBM provides:

• Deepindustryexpertise,patented

methodologiesandtechnologies

refinedinthousandsofprojects

• Robust,enterprise-wideoperating

environment,optimizedfor

performanceandefficiency

• Leadershipinallkeyinformation

managementsegments—enterprise

dataandcontentmanagement,

informationintegration,masterdata

management,datawarehousing,

businessintelligenceand

performancemanagement

• Industrysolutionsandbusiness

modelsthataccelerateresults

• Theindustry’smostextensive

partnernetwork

IBM alone has the experience and the

integrated information management

portfolio that can deliver Information

On Demand while embracing and

extending the value of your existing

investments.

For more information

To find more resources to help you

take the next steps toward Information

On Demand, contact your IBM

marketing representative or IBM

Business Partner, or visit:

ibm.com/software/ data/

information-on-demand/

RecognitionIBM’s continuing growth is evidence of the

company’s industry leadership. Numerous third

parties affirm that leadership with awards and

other recognition. Examples include:

• Leadership positioning in analyst rankings

for several information management

segments

• eWeek Excellence Award for Business

Integration Software

• Number 1 ranking in worldwide revenue

for identity and access management

software

The momentum of innovation continues.

Go to the IBM press room for details on these

and other important announcements:

ibm.com/press/us/en/index.wss

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© Copyright IBM Corporation 2008

IBM Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A.

Produced in the United States of America 02-08 All Rights Reserved

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, DB2 and OmniFind are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both.

Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. All statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and repre-sent goals and objectives only.

1 AIIM, The Enterprise Content Management Association, industry study, 2007.

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